Mookie Wilson Bio: In His Own Words – Video Exclusive, News, Photos

Mookie Wilson Biography

Mookie Wilson, born William Hayward Wilson, is a former MLB outfielder for the Mets widely known as the good guy in the “bad guy” Golden Age of the team in the 1980s.

Most famously, however, is his hit that rolled through the legs of Bill Buckner during the sixth game of the 1986 World Series, but that’s more of a story for later.

Wilson was born in Bamberg, S.C., in 1956 and grew up in the middle of the Civil Rights movement. He was too young to understand the width and depth of the divide, but was aware of inequality. “Growing up in that culture actually helped me to be the person I am and to take things and people for who they are,” Wilson told uInterview exclusively, “and saying all that, I met some wonderful people during those very turbulent times.”

It was his father who instilled in Wilson the strength of character that made him a legend in baseball, but it was Julius B. Ness and coach David Horton that introduced him to baseball and gave him a love of the game that would lead him down that road to a career.

Wilson didn’t have the natural talent that some ball players do. What made Wilson successful was a hallmark of his character: he was an incomparably hard worker, a hustler, who had more determination and strength of will than virtually anyone in major league baseball.

Mookie Wilson Baseball Career and the Mets

When Mookie Wilson joined the Mets in 1980, he became a good guy to the “bad guys” of teammates Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden; where the latter men were very publically known for their hard partying and womanizing—which brought the men and the team under the scrutiny of a judgmental media and a number of parents groups—Wilson was regarded by fans and teammates alike as a classical role model.

Wilson had a strong moral compass, something that his father instilled in him from a young age. He was not prone to drinking or drugging even at the height of his fame. Wilson was a defacto leader in the dugout, admired and respected by his peers not only for his beliefs but because he was not pious about them; there was little friction between him and his hard-partying teammates—no lectures from Wilson, no cartoonish temptation from them—because what drew them together was the game.

The topic of good guys and bad guys on the Mets comes up often and is meditated on in Wilson’s memoir Life, Baseball and the ’86 Mets. As he told uInterview succinctly, “They weren’t bad guys… they enjoyed their free time. I think we need to honor that.”

They all had the same love of baseball and for the team. It was about dedication, which Wilson had an abundance of, and they respected each other for it.

Mookie Wilson 1986 World Series

1986 is famously called “The Year the Bad Guys Won” because of the men that lined the Mets dugout. Moreover, it’s historically significant to baseball fans for a laundry list of reasons. The Red Sox were the odds on favorite by a great margin. During the Series itself, they started out strong, ably and efficiently destroying the Mets in their early games. By Game 6, the Sox led the Series 3 to 2 and were planning on wrapping up the Series that night.

The Sox began to unravel when their coach John McNamara replaced Clemens with a rookie Mike Greenwell in the eighth inning. The Mets tied the game up. It was on Mookie Wilson now. He reflected on this to uInterview: “we need[ed] to get on base and the pressure was there, but as it turned out the Red Sox actually let me off the hook by the pitches and then throwing a wild pitch and allowing an entire run to come in, now it’s just a matter of me putting the ball in play and we all seen what happened when that happened.”

Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner

At that point in his career, Bill Buckner had been playing first base for a decade. He had respectable numbers and was a highly competent and beloved member of the Red Sox by teammates and fans alike. He was also in the twilight of his career, having been playing professionally since 1968.

By this time, Buckner suffered from ongoing knee and ankle problems that were making things particularly difficult for him. Usually Red Sox coach John McNamara would take Buckner out in the later innings and bring Dave Stapleton in. In this game, Buckner was to remain in the field. It was a sentimental gesture—Buckner was a star in Boston and, according to McNamara he deserved to be on the field when the Sox won; McNamara also contested that the reason was also strategic: Stapleton was apparently inconsistent in his defense, and McNamara ironically felt Buckner was the safer choice.

On the pitch before that infamous play, Wilson was about to be hit by said pitch, but he smartly dove out of the way of the ball—it was a wild pitch and allowed the game to be tied. There’s a pretty good chance Wilson was hustling hard enough to beat the play anyway if Buckner had fielded it cleanly. Instead, as the story goes, brick-legged Buckner was unable to make the catch and the “Curse of the Bambino” superstition was given its primary example.

The story goes—the ball slides between Buckner’s legs, Wilson wins the game for the Mets, who two days later win the World Series for the first time in seventeen years and the last time since.

That night, the night of the slide, as well as Wilson’s feelings on Bill Buckner is a question Mookie Wilson is often asked and reflected on. “He made an error that’s something that happens in the game all the time if it had not been for the World Series, no one would even give second thoughts,” he told uInterview. “But we’ve become very good friends over the years we talk about it very candidly. He is very receptive to talk about it, and he’s open about it and honest and I couldn’t ask for anymore. I think it’s been a situation where he was in, and we make the most of it.”

Mookie Wilson Later Career and Retirement

In 1988, Wilson had arguably the best run of his career, but it’s never reported in the same breath as the ’86 World Series. Though the Mets in ’88 didn’t collect a pennant, Wilson managed a .385 all season, thirty runs scored, twenty-two RBIs and five home runs. This matched his record in his best year almost 15 years prior.

On September 5th of that year, Wilson’s Mets met the Pittsburgh Pirates on their home turf, beating them 7 to 5. While the score itself wasn’t a notable victory, it was the fact that Wilson carried the game for the Mets, with an RBI four times greater than anyone else on the team.

However, as his career wound down, Wilson drifted to the Blue Jays for the final years of his career. They were quiet years, but are remarkable for the Jays’ three game sweep of the Sox leading to climactic competitions with the Twins and the Orioles which eventually led to the Blue Jays leading their division.

Before retiring from the field, Wilson, in 1992, in a moment of sheer historical irony, nearly signed with the Boston Red Sox. Wilson instead decided to retire than risk tarnishing his already hall of fame guaranteeing career by staying in the game longer than he should have. He was already an icon; there was nothing left to prove.

Like many former players, Wilson moved to coaching, and from 1996-2002 was the first base coach for the Mets. He’s continued off and on in a coaching capacity in the single-A league when not enjoying his retirement.

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Mookie Wilson Memoir

Mookie: Life, Baseball, and the ’86 Mets (with Erik Sherman)

Watch Mookie Wilson’s uRant on PEDs: